Yay! Christmas is on its way. Do you know how I know? (And I'm ignoring all the decorations which are already up in the stores. The rule is December 1st people!) Last friday I decorated a Gingerbread house. It's one of my many Christmas traditions.


This year, I attended a Gingerbread event run by St Matt's at Ashbury, the church where Evie goes to playgroup. Coincidentally it's the same church where I decorated my first ever Gingerbread house. The tradition has come full circle! I think my roof fell off the first time I did it (oops!).

At the beginning of the evening they asked who was decorating a Gingerbread house for the first time. Then they asked who had done it before e.g. Who's decorated one house before? Who's decorated two houses before? etc... I think they got up to five houses. Well, I just did a count back and this has been a yearly tradition for me since 2003 (except I think I missed out in 2008). So that's eight gingerbread houses in my Christmas past.

You'd think I might be some kind of expert by now. I'm not. Some of the women who attended had much better piping skills than me. Some houses had delicate icicles hanging from the eaves and beautiful little bows piped onto Christmas wreaths. (The trick is to cut a very small hole in your piping bag. The hole I cut is always too big.)

But after eight houses I am an expert at suppressing my clusmy side to be able to produce a reasonable looking house. My motto when decorating a gingerbread house is "More is More! (I think I may have repeated it once or twice on the night.... sorry girls!) Every surface should be covered with lollies so as to distract from the dodgy piping job. I definitely stuck to my motto this year. I'm actually pretty pleased with how my house turned out. And with all those lollies I'm sure it will taste good too!

As promised here are some more photos from Christina's Baby Shower. We had a lovely picnic lunch by the water in Gladesville. It was a good day. It was such a beautiful day to be outside. I may have eaten a cupcake or two.

I'm in two minds about the whole baby shower thing. On the Pros side: It's a party. It's a party with cake. It's a party which often has a theme. It's a party with a game or two. It's a party that I sometimes get to organise. It's a party where I can hang out with my girls (often sans toddler). Hrm, that's a lot of Pros. On the Cons side: I'm not 100% down with the whole girls only aspect. Parenting is a two person job and a life changing event for both Mum and Dad. Is it time to include the boys in the baby shower? Your thoughts?

At Christina's baby shower we played a game where the objective was to collect as many pegs as you could from a coat hanger using only one hand. It was supposed to simulate trying to take washing off the line while holding a sleeping baby. Luckily Sue was on hand to demonstrate. She's of the method school of acting and had the appropriate props. (Aw I shouldn't call a beautiful, sleeping Zoe a prop).

Clare won the game removing a ridiculous number of pegs with one hand. I think it was 16 or 17. I can't remember the exact number. Clare, I'm sure you can enlighten us.


There were lots of cute kiddies at the shower. I left Evie at home with Andrew. Evie was having quality time with Daddy. I love my little girl but I do enjoy it when I can have an uninterrupted conversation or two.


More photos (slideshow) on Flickr.

It's been a while since I've done a trivia post. We're still going once a month. We still try to think of a topical name including the word badger (this month's name, Badger Frenzy, was inspired by the ClickFrenzy / ClickFail fiasco). We mostly manage to win a prize when we go (on Thursday we placed third). All is good in the world of the Badgers.

Here is your chance at this month's questions. You know the rules:

1. Which Australian cricketer was the first to score a test century in the 2012/2013 season?
   
   
2. Which Australian city was recently voted the world's most liveable city for the 2nd year running?
   
   
3. Which is longer a cricket or baseball bat?
   
   
4. In what year did Antonio Samaranch announce "and the winner is Sydney"? (in other words, in what year was Sydney announced as the host of the 2000 Olympic Games?)
   
   
5. Which two Australian states produce the most truffles? (Options are: Tasmania, South Australia, Western Australia, Victoria)
   
   
6. A vixen is the female of which creature?
   
   
7. Which European city is often called "The Eternal City"?
   
   
8. Whose catchphrases included "Nanu Nanu" and "Shazbutt"?
   
   

Answers on a postcard (or in the comments if you're feeling lazy).

Here are some more lovely family photos from our Byron trip. What a good looking family!

Another busy day today.

This morning Annie, Audrey, Evie and I went to see Justine Clarke at the Opera House. Evie's not hugely emotive so it's hard to say how much she enjoyed it. She did a bit of dancing, clapped in the right places and watched intently throughout the concert. I'd say it was a winner.

Before we headed up to the concert we let the girls burn off some energy on the Opera House concourse. They are just starting to play together (rather than just snatch toys from each other). They had lots of fun chasing each other up and down a ramp.

Evie was a bit tired at the end of the concert. When I tried to take a photo of her with the bridge this was all she could manage.


More photos (slideshow) on Flickr.